Scrambled Up
by Dude Lord of Weird
Summary: Josh won't let Drake get completely scrambled. 4part! complete
1. Chapter 1

**Scrambled Up  
**_Part 1/4_

* * *

It was Drake's turn to read in History.

"Um...Mr Donovan, I don't feel that well- can I just go to the nurse or something?"

Josh rolled his eyes as the teacher sighed. "Drake, if you're well enough to not pay attention and goof off in my class, I think you're well enough to read one lousy paragraph. Now let's hear it.

"In for-ten- I mean, in fourteen ninety-two...Christopher Co-loam-bose-"

"Columbus," Josh hissed to his brother. The other kids in their class were snickering, and Drakes face was flushing to a deep crimsom.

"Oh, right...Columbus dee-discover-ed- _discovered_ North Ah-mee-America- I'm sorry, but can I please just stop?"

"Just a few more sentences, Drake," Mr Donovan said, nodding his head. "Take your time."

Drake exhaled furiously, his breath ruffling his bangs. He stared down at the paper, never glancing up. Josh was kind of surprised. He tried to remember the last time that he had heard his brother read a whole paragraph out loud, but he realized that Drake had only read sentences before, and sometimes even struggled with them.

After a few moments that felt like several Eternities to Josh, he began to read again. "He was l-looking for a row-rote-_route_ to Aw-see-uh- um...Aw-see-ah-"

That did it. The snickering became a roar of laughter from the class. Josh looked around at his laughing classmates, absolutely horrified when he caught a glimpse of Drake's face, his skin bright red and his eyes glazed with tears.

"Drake, please continue."

The teen took a deep breath, the book in his hands shaking. "Co-Columbus led he-his three sh-ships, the Nee-nuh, the Pee-ta, a-and the Say-tah May-ry-uh-"

The class exploded in laughter again, and Josh just watched as Drake slammed his book closed, grabbed his backpack, and all but ran from the room.


	2. Chapter 2

**Scrambled Up  
**_Part 2/4  
_

* * *

Josh figured Drake was skipping, as per usual, when he didn't show up for their next class together. When he didn't turn up for lunch, Josh got a little concerned. When the final bell rang and Drake was still nowhere to be found, Josh went into freaked-out brother mode.

He spent a good half hour looking around the emptying hallways of the school, since Drake apparently couldn't be bothered to answer his cellphone. He finally resigned himself to the fact that Drake had just gone home early and that the sooner he left, the sooner he could pummel his brother for making him worry so much.

He headed out to his car, pulling out his keys as he went. He opened his back car door to throw his backpack inside, and instead ended up with a head swinging downwards and striking the metal of the car with a faint thud and a not-so-faint curse.

"Drake?"

His brother just blinked back at him.

"How'd you even get in?"

Drake held up a straightened hanger and grinned lazily. "I have determined that if your car was worth anything, it'd be really easy to steal."

"That's nice."

"Well, at least no one would want to, 'cos it's a piece of crap."

"_Gee_. Thanks, Drake- you know, I just spent half an hour looking for you, so quit insulting my car!"

Josh hauled Drake out of the backseat, where he had obviously been sprawled out quite comfortably- at least, before Josh interfered. "Why were you looking for me?"

He raised his eyebrows at Drake. "Did you hit your head that hard? I figured you were pissed about Hist-"

The expression on his brother's face darkened instantly. "We are _not_ talking about that," he hissed, shrugging off the hand Josh had laid on his shoulder. Josh opened his mouth to say something, but Drake just walked around to the other side of the car, got into the passenger side, and crossed his arms.

So Josh just shoved his backpack in the backseat and slammed the door shut before getting into the driver's seat- and slamming that door too.

"Want to go to the movies tonight?" asked Drake brightly.


	3. Chapter 3

**Scrambled Up  
**_Part 3/4_

* * *

Audrey had been looking at them funny ever since they got back. Well, the woman had raised Drake and Megan- she had to be paranoid if she was going to survive the experience. She watched as Drake gulped down some Mocha Cola in the kitchen and nearly swallowed his banana whole before he rushed upstairs and slammed the door shut.

Josh was still drinking his glass of milk.

"Alright, Josh-" Audrey smiled at him and put down the spoon she had been stirring the soup with. "What's up with Drake?"

Josh hessitated. He knew that if he had an embarassing experience, he would really appreciate it if Drake just kept his mouth shut. But that look on Drake's face and his refusal to talk about it set off about a million warning bells in Josh's head, and- like it or not- his Mom might know something that could clue Josh in on why his brother was acting so weird.

"Our History teacher, Mr Donovan- well, he made us read a paragraph out loud today, and Drake didn't do so well. He spent the whole day in my car."

Audrey bit her lip. "He hasn't told you, has he?"

"Tell me what?"

She shook her head. "That's for him to tell you." She kissed Josh lightly on the head. "Thank you, though. You don't need to worry, he'll be just fine."

And with that, she left.

Somehow, Josh felt even more confused than before.

* * *

When Josh headed up to his room just a few minutes later, he heard something extremely out of the ordinary. Instead of a guitar playing or a TV blaring, there were voices.

"Drake, sweetie- I can talk to your teacher about it, so he knows if it ever comes up again-"

"So? Then I'll have to read in English, then in Science, and before you know it, everyone's laughing at me."

"You do very well. You know that- you can't help it!"

Josh eased the door open just a crack, so he could see Drake and Audrey sitting on the couch together. "I'm not doing well enough. I almost didn't pass English again. I mean, what kind of idiot can't even pass his own language? I just- I hate school, I really do. I hate it."

Audrey gave Drake a hug, and Josh shut the door again as he saw Drake's shoulders begin to shake. As curious as he was, Drake deserved his privacy.

He walked away, the sounds of Drake's distress fading as he went.


	4. Chapter 4

**Scrambled Up  
**_Part 4/4_

* * *

After a rather uneventful shift at the Premiere (uneventful because Crazy Steve had failed to show up for work, something Josh considered to be nothing short of a miracle), Josh headed back up to his room. The way Drake was acting was still bothering him; he had come up with a thousand and one reasons why his brother was having trouble reading, each more unpleasant than the last.

Perhaps he just needed glasses? That wasn't too bad, but Drake would put up one hell of a fit over that.

Depression? Was it possible to be so depressed that you can't read a damn sentence right?

Maybe ADD? He had read somewhere that ADD could make it hard to read.

Drugs. He remembered seeing some kind of late-night documentary about drugs frying brains into primordial goop. How fast could brains become goop?

A brain tumor.

That last one scared Josh quite a bit.

He opened the door to his room and saw Drake strumming his guitar on his bed. "Hey, Drake."

"Hey, Josh." Drake set down his guitar. "Um...look, we need to talk."

More warning bells were going off in Josh's head. If anymore went off, he was going to have permanent auditory damage.

Drake was nibbling at his lip. "Look, Mom wanted me to talk to you about today. She said you were worried. But you have to understand- this doesn't leave the room."

"Yeah- sure."

"Okay, well...thing is, I have dyslexia."

Josh felt nearly dizzy with relief- a reason he hadn't thought of that did not involve anything particularly bad. He simply couldn't choke back the laugh that was rising in his throat. It wasn't as bad as he had imagined. It was okay, he now realized, still chuckling.

Then he saw Drake's face, his expression comically stuck between seriously pissed off and extremely confused. "It's not funny," he said defensively.

"No- no, of course it's not." Josh took a deep breath. "I'm just really relieved. I mean, I was just really worried, and it's just- I'm sorry."

"Wait- why were you worried?"

"Dude, I thought you were into drugs, or you had a brain tumor or something! Why didn't you just tell me?"

Drake sighed.

He shouldn't have laughed. It had put Drake on automatic defense- how he treated the rest of the world, not Josh. And now, Josh was going to have to work to get some answers. He stood beside Drake's loft bed, and wiped every trace of amusement from his face. "Drake, why didn't you tell me?"

"Because-" Drake hessitated, and if he bit his lip any harder, Josh was sure it was going to bleed. Then the words came flooding out so fast, Josh's head spun a little bit, trying to keep up. "Because you're smart, Josh- _really _smart. And I'm not. I can't even read right, and I can barely pass my classes, even when I try. And you can make straight _A_'s in your sleep. I mean, you deserve a smart brother, and it's easier to be the slacker than the retard. Do you have any idea how stupid I look next to you?"

"Drake, you're not stupid!"

Drake snorted. "Right. Because you always thought I was _sooooo_ intelligent before."

Josh shook his head. "I never thought you were stupid," he said softly, climbing up the step ladders to sit next to Drake on his bed. "And I'm sorry if I made you think that. I do think you're smart."

"I just...I used to try really hard."

Josh nodded. "I remember. Back in elementary, you always did all of your homework. Then when we started middle school, you just gave up."

"It was just too hard. I couldn't keep up with everything, and I just felt so _stupid_- so I just started working on music instead."

Josh nudged his brother's shoulder with his own. "That's how I know you're not stupid. You're a genius on that guitar."

The corners of Drake's mouth twitched a little bit. "I'm not bad," he allowed. "I just wish I could be better at the stuff people count. Like school."

"Hey- in twenty years, after you hit it big, where am I going to be? Just working my ass off at some job I probably won't even care about. And no one is going to remember me. They're going to remember you- the rockstar."

"Doesn't change how I feel now."

"Okay, fine. Since I'm obviously failing at making you feel better- do you remember that one test we had in Chemistry? The one that you forgot to tell me about after I was out sick for a week?"

"Yeah. You failed it, and you tried to kill me with a blender. How could I forget?"

"Hey. You were totally asking for it, and I didn't mean to attempt murder or anything- the blender was just the first thing I could grab. But that's not the point- the point is I totally bombed that test."

"Okay?"

"Yeah, Drake. Because I didn't have the information I needed to pass it. You can't pass something if you don't know the material. And how can you pass if the only way you get information is all scrambled up? It doesn't make you any less smart, Drake. The thing is, you're not getting the information. And you fail, just like I failed that test."

Drake was staring at Josh.

"Did I just convince you that you're not stupid?"

"Well, no. But I did just consider it, which is a first."

Josh rolled his eyes. "Look. If you want, we can start going over the notes together. I can try to help you out with stuff, maybe do some research and find some ways to help you. I can prove you're not stupid, if you want me to."

Drake nodded. "I don't think I'd mind that."

Josh grinned. "Now that I know I'm not sharing my room with a hospice case or a drug addict-"

"Yeah?"

"Hug me brotha?"

Drake smiled the first real smile Josh had seen on his face all day and buried himself in Josh's arms.

* * *

_This is the first fic I've ever managed to finish, and it's for Neil, who rocks at being "scrambled".  
__Anyway, please take the time to review and let me know if you enjoyed it. I'd really appreciate it.  
__Thanks for reading._


End file.
